brown swiss cow for sale?

I recently moved to Maine and I am looking for a brown swiss milking cow for my family. I have chosen this breed because they are so docile and would like to have a calm cow for my first. I have had a beef cow before and plenty of dairy goats. I don't much care about registering I just want a decent tempered animal. Ayreshires and Guernseys are my next choice. Does anyone out there have a cow or heifer for sale??? They seem to be a rare breed around here, I'm not looking for show quality just milk for my family of six. Thanks for any help. cara lewis cnllewis@email.com

Answers

Cara, I am considering a milk cow also. What are the pros and cons
of the Brown Swiss, Ayreshire, Guernsey, and Jersey? We don't need a
great deal of milk, I would like cream to make butter and cheese
with, and have excess milk to feed to chickens and pigs, etc...

You are going to pay a high price for any of the above mentioned
breeds. They to are rare here in N.Y. I now Have a Jersey heifer calf
that will someday be my milk cow .My service bull is an Angus "tastes
good" and believe it or not he is well mannered !

Just a thought , do you have any dairys near by ? You can sometimes
buy there culls at a good price .Some are simply sold because for the
dairys need they no longer give enough milk .For your family it would
be plenty .

You may even be able to work out a deal , maybe say $ o for the cow
if you give them x number of calves back ? Good luck .

Cara- I'll admit I'm a bit prejudiced, but a Swiss might not be the
best choice for a family cow for a few reasons. First is their size-
they are HUGE. Meaning you are feeding a lot of bone and muscle,
before you feed for milk production. Also, they are relatively calm,
but can be very strong, and very strong willed. We have friends who
breed some of the best in the world- export them to South America,
show them all over the country- and they tend to get pushed around
regularly even by their very well trained show animals. The other BIG
drawback for a homestead animal is the odd trait that their calves
have. They also can be extremely stubborn, so that if they suck from
the cow even once after they are born, they very well may starve to
death rather than take milk from a bottle. Don't ask me why!

Trigger to answer your question. First- I"m prejudiced because we
have a small registered herd of Ayrshires plus half a dozen milking
Jersey cows. We've owned every breed but Milking Shorthorn, though and
have a working knowledge of their pros and cons.

Jerseys have the highest butterfat and protein content in their milk.
They give less milk, but are getting to produce more all the time.
They are much smaller than any of the other breeds, and ours are much
more lightly "furred" even in the winter- the Ayrshires can look like
teddy bears and the Jersey's look like we clipped them for show. Might
make a difference if you don't have proper housing. Temperament wise,
Jersey's are too darned smart for their own good. They'll open gates,
turn water faucets on (They LOVE to play with water) and in general
make life a bit more interesting than you'd like. However, if you
mistreat one, beware- her memory of it will last longer than yours,
and she WILL get revenge. They can also be immensely stubborn- you can
coax them to do something, but NEVER force them.
Ayrshires, which I love, have a terrible reputation for being
nervous, high strung cows- and I've honestly never seen it. In 23
years of breeding them, I've had two "kickers" and both went for beef
within weeks. We simply don't tolerate that behavior in any breed.
They are intelligent animals, and I've always said they need to be
treated a bit more like a horse than a cow- IOW, not pushed around but
treated with respect. They test about 4% butterfat and 3.3% protein,
and a good one can make a lot of milk.
Guernsey's (although there are exceptions) are a lost cause, a
dying breed. My FIL and his family had them for generations, and a
weaker, more problem prone animal I've never seen. An old vet in the
area had a saying "Guernseys and turkeys are born to die" and he
wasn't kidding. They tend towards problems with their lungs, mastitis
and feet and leg trouble. Disposition wise they are fine. This wasn't
a management thing in this herd, either, because when my husband and I
introduced Ayrshires, at one point the entire herd had a severe
pneumonia outbreak. Of the 6 Ayrshires, only one even got sick. Of the
40 Guernsey's 7 DIED, two dozen more aborted their calves, and most of
the rest dried up. Talk about discouraging!
We're too far to help you, I'm afraid (we are in Western NY
state), but we do often sell a "homestead" cow, and I'm tickled to do
it. I define a homestead cow as a healthy, sound young cow who is a
bit too small for our wants (we have top show stock as well as top
milkers, and limit our numbers to what the farm will feed). These
animals often have a wonderful disposition, milk well if not
tremendously, and I absolutely hate selling them for beef. As long as
I'm satisfied with their quality (even if it isn't show quality) I
sell them with papers for about halfway inbetween beef price and
registered price. It seems to make everyone happy.
Linda

I've only have two Brown Swiss as part of my beef herd. One was as
sweet as sugar, other one earned the nickname of The Swiss Bitch.
Probably was how they were treated before the got here. As Linda
says, they are large cows without a particularly corresponding large
milk supply. I've also bought Jerseys because they were cheap to
breed to my beef bull. All fell out of the system within a couple of
years. They really aren't meant to be raised just on pasture and
hay, plus milk fever is a problem. It sounds like you and Linda need
to get together. From Maine to Western NY isn't all that far and the
climate isn't all that different. If you can find a good homestead
milk cow, an eight-hour trip one way to pick it up doesn't seem
much. Will likely need a vet certificate to take it across state
lines. Have you given any thought to how you are going to breed it so
you have a milk supply from year-to-year? It's either a bull or AI.
For a single cow keeping a bull doesn't make sense. If he is good at
one he does, he only works one day a year in this case. AI is very
difficult on a small scale. Check around the area to see if there
isn't someone milking a cow or two who has extra milk. Just buy it
for livestock consumption only to skirt the laws. Would seem worth
the price even if you have to pay a bit of a premium over store-
bought.

I have a Brown Swiss/Jersey mix. She was wild and snorty when she
got here 6 months ago. We couldn't get within 10 feet of her without
her bolting and flinching. But I saw something in her eye and knew
it was just bad handling in her past. We were patient and didn't
force her into anything. Now she is just as sweet and calm as you
can get. I prefer her to the registered Jerseys I started out with
and I really liked them.

CoCo is my Jersy/Holstein cross. I got her free from a dairy farmer
who thought she wouldn't amount to much. He bred his first timers to a
jersy bull for ease of calving. I've had her since she was 4 days old
and bottle raised her. Her first breeding to a small jersy
bull produced a huge stillborn (had to pull him)bull calf, but she was
producing 80# of milk a day. (bought a cow can't kick for milking
worked well, but don't need it any more!) I sent her to a friend who
bred her to a milking shorthorn. She had a heifer which he bought
back from me when she was weaned. CoCo produced plenty of milk for
her and me! This spring I sent her to a neighbor with a holstein bull
and she is due in January. Couldn't ask for a nicer cow. I also get
calls all the time from dairy farmers looking to sell 'poor' producers
or ones with damaged quarters at slaughter prices. Just tell your
local vet and feed store what you want, you'll be deluged with calls!

You didn't say what part of Maine you're in, but there is Clarks
livestock auction in Skowhegan every Tuesday and there's another one,
Ben Tilton's near Dover Foxcroft on Thursdays. They usually run
holsteins, but they often have other breeds. Also, there's the Uncle
Henry's, and that might be your best bet. One other place you might
look is at the agricultural fairs that are going on right now. My
husband and I raise dairy and beef cattle, and while some breeds have
good reputations for being docile, alot has to do with the way the
animal was raised and has been handled. If you think the prices are
too high right now, you may be able to do a little better right before
Christmas, or if you wait until winter hits hard you might be able to
pick up a homestead cow because people don't put up enough hay, or
they get tired of the work in the cold. Good luck in your search.

Has anybody tried keeping a milking cow on primarily pasture and hay,
using an absolute minimum of supplements? If so, what breeds would
you look at to be the best for this? I have been looking into Devons
(the old-fashioned kind) and Dexters. We don't need a lot of milk,
but would like to be able to get the cream more easily than from
goats milk.

We have a jersey and she is great. I think the jersey is the best
for milk. My husband had a dairy and that was what they used. We also
raise beef cattle like brahman and on down . Out of all I like the
jersey because they are gentle. We get them when they are calfs so as
they get older they will trust you more.